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Lunenburg OKs buying maximum solar credits

By Katina Caraganis , kcaraganis@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
01/09/2013 06:38:28 AM EST

LUNENBURG -- Selectmen voiced their support Tuesday night for purchasing as many net-metering credits as possible from two out-of-state developers looking to bring large-scale solar facilities to two separate pieces of property in town.

The two projects, one on Electric Avenue and one on Chase Road, have received special permits from the Planning Board.

Maryland-based EPG Solar has had its power-purchase agreement signed for its project on Electric Avenue.

By doing that, the town agrees to buy net-metering credits from EPG but has yet to decide if it will purchase credits from a separate developer and, if so, how many.

EPG has not gotten an approved payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement, from the town because the piece of property in question is being held in bankruptcy court, according to Town Manager Kerry Speidel, and any decision that is made must be approved by the court.

In November, selectmen and Florida-based MASS PV1 tentatively agreed to a power-purchase agreement pending final approval of the plan, but since then, the board has not seen anything else from the company.

Scott Fenton, an attorney in Worcester representing MASS PV1, previously told selectmen his client would build a half-megawatt facility on a commercially zoned property on Chase Road. Selectmen agreed to purchase the credits on that project, Town Manager Kerry Speidel said Monday afternoon.

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The company would still develop the project on the residential land, and the town has until Feb. 13 to decide if it wants to purchase those credits. If not, they could be sold to other Unitil communities in Massachusetts.

A third solar project has been in the works for the town's landfill by Borrego Solar, but it has yet to go anywhere in the past two years, according to Speidel.

She said it is her understanding that representatives from Borrego "would not have their feelings hurt if the town just walked away from the project," she told selectmen.

The project was first proposed as two megawatts, but due to consolidation and the cost to upgrade the current system, it is .75 megawatts and does not appear to be feasible for the company anymore.

Because of that, Speidel said, the boards needs to decide if it wants to purchase more credits from MASS PV1 now that the landfill project is likely to be out of the running to be included under Unitil's cap for net-metering credits.

Selectmen Chairman Dave Matthews said the board needs to move on without Borrego.

"Until then, it's basically an open land mine," he said. "I think we need to put Borrego on the back burner."

Selectman Ernie Sund agreed but said it should be Borrego's decision to walk away, not the town's.

"I would like Borrego to be the one to walk away from this," he said. "They invested all this money into this project. If they come back in and tell us they're walking away, I'd support it."

Sund added that he doesn't want to be on the hook for a portion of the company's costs associated with the work it has done.

Sund said he believes the extra credits generated that Lunenburg cannot use need to be pushed more aggressively to the other three towns in the Unitil service area.

"I think we should push harder to sell these to other communities," he said. "If we can sell those to other communities, we're even further ahead."

Speidel said that because the credits are being generated from projects in Lunenburg, they should stay in Lunenburg, adding that the town needs to take advantage of as many of them as possible.

The credits do not expire, and can be accrued from year to year.

In EPG's power-purchase agreement, there is a clause that the project must be built by May 13, and because of the hold-up in bankruptcy court, she is apprehensive about how it will all play out.

"EPG hasn't missed any deadlines so we can't get out of the contract yet with them," she said. "I feel a lot less certain about EPG than I did months ago. I think it would be in our benefit to have them."

Selectman Tom Alonzo agreed, saying there is no harm in acquiring credits and banking them for future use it need be if they aren't sold to another town.

"Strategically, it's in our best interest in purchasing as many credits as we can," he said. "I feel comfortable about selling off excess credits at a reasonable price. Who would say no to that?"

The board opted to give all the developers additional time to work out any kinks in their plans before it is decided whether to move on from Borrego or purchase more credits from MASS PV1.

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